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Women Hiring Investigators To Check On Potential Dates

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – As a Christian, Diana Shipman thought she knew all about good and evil until she met him in the flesh. “I’m telling you, I’ve never known evil like this. Never,” Shipman said. “He was a wolf in sheep’s clothing. He told me he was a college professor,” she said.

Had she done her homework on him, she would’ve discovered he was no professor. But there was something more serious.

“He had a history of rape and I knew nothing about it. I didn’t know who I was dealing with,” Shipman said.

“I hear horrific stories like that all the time,” Catherine Smit said.

Smit, a Private Investigator, says, hoping to avoid men like that, more and more women are turning to private investigators for pre-relationship investigations.

Internet dating, she says, has practically made them a necessity.

“Nowadays you move around all different places. You get on the internet and you can become who you want to be,” Smit said.

As a Private Investigator and former cop, Smit has access to records the ordinary citizen does not: marriage, divorce, bankruptsy, foreclosure, and criminal history.

Then, there’s always the possibility of surveillance.

Bill Albright is another Private Investigator who recently captured, on hidden camera, a woman’s boyfriend in a strip club.

“There we have him getting close and personal with one of the dancers on the stage,” Albright said.

Both investigators put together a list of red flags women should watch for.

* “What’s the matter, don’t you trust me?” He won’t give you a straight answer and he makes it seem like you’re paranoid for asking it.

* He never invites you over to his place. There’s always an excuse. He may tell you that his place is being remodeled or he’s staying with a relative for the time being. The truth is, he doesn’t want you to know he’s married or living with someone else.

* Takes his cell phone everywhere. He doesn’t want to leave it where you can possibily answer it or see who he’s been talking to.

* He’s secretive about making his phone calls. That’s because he doesn’t want you to know who he’s talking to.

* You can’t call him anytime you want. He can only call you. That’s because his wife or girlfriend might be with him when you call.

* He never introduces you to his family or longtime friends. Those are the people that really know him and could say something out loud if there’s someone else in his life.

* Stories and timelines don’t add up. He claims to have been in one place but then later tells you he was in another. You have to be a good listener to find inconsistencies.

* Comes on too strong. He wants to get married right away. He tells you that you are the love of his life when he really isn’t after your love. He’s after your money and credit. If you marry him and he’s in debt, you’ll become responsible for it or he could drain your bank account. .

* He’s too interested in your children. Child predators prey upon single women with children. He may even pretend he didn’t know you had children. He may suggest a stay at home night with the kids instead of going out with you on a date. It may look noble but he’s really trying to get to your kids.

*Beware of half truths. He may be going to an office party. But, he doesn’t tell you his girlfriend is going to be there too. Or he may be going out with a group of friends from work. But he’s invited a woman to meet him there too.

Investigator Smit says it costs only about 50-dollars for a basic background investigation.

“It costs a whole lot less to do a basic background check on somebody before you meet them than after you meet then and pay the price,”she said.

Private Investigators agree, it’s mostly the men who are pretending to be someone they’re not.

“I guess men, as a class, are just dogs. I don’t know,” Albright said.
After her experience, Diana Shipman would rather keep company with a dog, her daschund Tori.

“I’ll die alone rather than go through anything like that again,” Shipman said.

Hardly need a private investigator to check public records. There are a number of services, both public and private, free and paid, available online. Publicdata.com is one that I have used. County records are very telling and accessible to anyone. In minutes you can learn quite a bit about a person, and spend very little.

Miller…
I am so glad to hear that you are using databases to do research and are a savvy person! Hats off to you! I would rather see someone do this than nothing at all! I appreciate the Public Data, as it offers a fair amount of information. In certain cases, it requires that the person requires in depth investigation, surveillance, or other means to verify information because sometimes there are explanations for the information posted and the common inaccuracies. There is just no substitute for a skilled Professional to work your case! Believe it or not, I don’t charge that much to conduct a basic search!

Publicdata.com is good, and I use it as well. However, it is limited in which states to search from. Overall, though, for the amount of searches you get for the price, it’s probably the best value out there.

OMG this story is important to single women who are looking for someone to love and how they need to protect themselves and you comment on the spelling typos. Makes me wonder if you are one of the preditors.

LOL! OWNED! By the way, SARAH, these people are journalists, and are supposed to have gone to college to master the ENGLISH LANGUAGE. Most reporters used to have Roget’s Thesaurus, a dictionary, and the AP Guide on their desks. Now, you would probably find NONE of those on said desks. They are held to much higher standards than we are in the area of grammar, spelling, etc. – or at least they USED TO BE, until “good enough” substituted for “best”.

Also, your assertion that critics of the article must be PREDATORS also illustrates your complete lack of IQ and common sense.

It’s interesting that the story ends by generalizing that all men are pigs! Is tomorrow nights story going to be “10 Ways Men Should Be Cautious with Internet Dating!”?
The same things happen to men through these same sites! Why is it that men always get the bad rap and are made to look stupid in commercials?
Where is the “balance” in reporting or have we moved out of the news category into the entertainment category where only the odd and unusual stories get reported?
Women are just as likely to misrepresent themselves online, post old or someone else’s pictures, lie about their occupation or age, etc.
A follow-up story is warranted!

Fairness…
I have conducted these investigations for men also! I told them about 2 situations regarding men as victims.
I need to update my website to include all these tips for men and women regarding Pre-Relationship issues/red flags on my website. I currently only have signs of cheating spouses listed.

Any private investigator who claims to have special access to background information is either not being truthful or is seriously breaking the law! Anything that a PI can do legally, can be accomplished by any private citizen who is willing to pay access to certain websites. Local police agencies and the DPS do not share their criminal background information with anyone, except where that person being “investigated” sends fingerprint cards and a notarized statement granting full access. By the way, that just doesn’t happen!

Business opportunity for PIs:
Let people register themselves for investigation and pay to have results (good or bad) published online with access by passwords given to customer. Password and website is printed on business cards and given to customer.

Customer goes up to lady, says “Hey sugar dumplin; you lookin mighty fine today. You so fine I want you to check my criminal record because even though I come off sleezy, creepy, and revolting, I’m really not. Truly I am not. I’m just a man, standing in front of a woman, asking her to check his DateFax.” Then he hands her the card. The lady’s skin craws slightly but she still can’t resist checking the dude out anyway. Shes finds out he’s clean, falls in love, has babies, and lives happily ever after.

Tom…
I appreciate your opinion and you are correct that there are many databases that cover a lot of information that one may be looking for however, there are certain databases that are limited to licensed private investigators and even some that are for licensed private investigators who have prior law enforcement experience. True, we cannot get all the same information that law enforcement records entail, but the subscriptions and application process that we go through to have access to these databases provides far more information than that offered by public data/free or subscription sites to the general public. We use those as well at times in comparison. The professional investigator is there to assist anyone who chooses to go the extra mile to have the additional confidence in their situation!

Bull____! Using little more than my computer and wallet, I can find out everything that you can, because I did so in a former profession. All public records can be accessed by anyone who knows how! In my opinion, it is a waste of money to hire someone to do what you can accomplish on your own.
Having said that, one may need a PI if a person has to be followed, or people have to be contacted to collect additional information that can only be obtained through such interviews. Remember, however, that what people will tell a PI may be little more than gossip, but that too might be useful.

Stiletto Spy-you are correct in what you are saying about the data bases that we (private investigators) can access. There is information there that we would not be able to access, had we not been licensed and paid for the data base. Public searches are good, but just not good enough.

The best advice is to go with your gut feeling. If you don’t feel good about anything you are usually right. Even the PI’s can’t get all the info on these characters as they usually have fake ID’s, driver’s licenses, etc., & using several different names. For any & all of you women stay clear of anyone named “Archie McGill or David Wood. They are both the same & will tell you Susie (Susan) is their sister when she is their wife. Of course, they are both great church goers!

And then there are those who have changed their name, raped but not been prosecuted, hide the fact that child rapists run in their family, etc. There is one such fellow preying on women in Plano who now has his law degree and an very unusual first name that sounds like “Dale”. I found out a decade after our divorce that even the job he claimed to have the first two years of our marriage was a total lie. Another good clue ladies, if he says all his ex’s are crazy and he’s being stalked by women.

P.S. This same Plano attorney has filed a number of false police reports against others, admitting to some, yet never been charged with this crime! Do a public records search of his property and the police are there on a regular basis. He has filed cases in court with NO notice to the other party, sworn under oath he did, and set it for hearing without the other person’s knowledge. This too is a crime. Did he face any charges even after he admitted it? NOPE!